NUCLEAR ENERGY IN THE GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL STATES

Though the GCC countries have, all along, emphasized the right of every state to develop and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, they have taken very few steps toward developing any sort of nuclear capacity. Being the ardent opponents of nuclear weapons proliferation, they demanded a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in the Middle East, ratified or acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), joined the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), signed the comprehensive safeguards agreement and the IAEA Additional Protocol, and acceded to a number of international agreements, such as the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and its amendments, the Convention on Nuclear Safety, the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident, and the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. However, these activities were insufficient to create a nuclear nonproliferation culture in these countries.